The armchair theologian shares some thoughts that touch upon the real issues of life. I hope you are blessed!

Wednesday, June 04, 2014

THIS IS YOUR LIFE

This morning I did my day hiking in Proverbs and pondered verses 10-14: "Hear, O my son, and receive my sayings; and the years of thy life shall be many.I have taught thee in the way of wisdom; I have led thee in right paths.When thou goest, thy steps shall not be straitened; and when thou runnest, thou shalt not stumble.Take fast hold of instruction; let her not go: keep her; for she is thy life." Dear friends, the Bible is not like any other book. It contains the mind of God revealed so that we might know how to live and obtain eternal life. Not long after reading Proverbs 4, I came across an article by the late evangelist Lester Roloff. It was a sermon he once preached title, "THIS IS YOUR LIFE"!

I pass it on to you as an admonition and exhortation to take heed to the things God has revealed to us in the Holy Scriptures. I hope you enjoy it.

In Jesus name,

Pastor Tom

THIS IS YOUR LIFE, by Lester Roloff

"But stand thou
still a while, that I may show thee the Word of God," I Samuel 9:27.
"Now therefore stand still, that I may reason with you before the Lord of
all the righteous acts of the Lord," I Samuel 12:7

"Our Father, we commit our mind to Thee for the
thinking, our ears for the listening, our tongue for the speaking, and our pen
for the writing. Give us a sermon from heaven and bless every reader and may we
completely commit our way to the Lord, trust also in Him that He may bring it
to pass.

We dedicate and pray that Thou shall consecrate every word
of this message for the glory of Christ and the blessing of the people. Prepare
every heart for the reading and let these words fulfill the very purpose of God.
In Jesus' Name, Amen." Today, I would like to share with you the last
message of the greatest man of the Old Testament.

He was the meekest man on earth, yet he was the greatest
leader, the greatest deliverer. He was born to die and yet he lived. He was
hidden, haunted, hated, hunted and hungry. He literally lifted millions of
Israelites out of a four hundred and thirty year bondage. In Deuteronomy,
chapter 32, we have the last message or sermon that this unusual man delivered.
He waited forty years in Midian, wandered forty years in the wilderness, and at
the age of a hundred and twenty, he walked up a mountain to his own funeral.
With God as his Undertaker and Uptaker, he died according to the Word of the
Lord and his strength was not abated, neither was his eye dim. Listen to Moses
as he gains the attention and arouses the interest of those that have traveled
with him under the pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.

"Give ear, O ye heavens, and I will speak; and hear, O earth, the words
of my mouth." He wasn't ashamed for heaven to hear his final message and
he knew the people of earth ought to listen to it. "My doctrine shall drop
as the rain, my speech shall distil as the dew. . ." He's going to preach
a moist message and a purifying sermon. Before we give the sermon, let me give
the six characteristics of Moses that made him such a great man (from Hebrews 11:24-27)

First, he refused
to be called the Son of Pharoah's daughter.

Second, he chose
the afflictions with the people of God rather than the pleasures of sin for a
season.

Third, he
esteemed the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt.

Fourth, he
endured.

Fifth, he saw Him
who was invisible.

Sixth, he had
respect unto the recompence of the reward.

In Deuteronomy 32, he gives a hundred and twenty years of
accumulated wisdom and his first statement is, "I will publish the Name of
the Lord: ascribe ye greatness unto our God. He is the Rock, His work is
perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity,
just and right is He." Amen! Think of it, my friend. After all of the experiences
of opposition, misunderstanding and criticism, he stood at the end of life's
runway to brag on the Rock and had reached the conclusion that He is "just
right"! Then he bears the testimony of God's goodness and reminds all of
us that we were found in a desert land, in a waste howling wilderness and like
an eagle stirring up her nest, fluttering over her young, spreading abroad her
wings, we've been taken and have been borne upon the wings of the Saviour.

We've been made to ride in the high places, eat the increase
of the fields, suck honey out of the rock, and been in the heavenly oil
business. We've eaten homemade butter and drunk the finest milk and pure grape
juice. But sad to say, Moses had to remind the people that they had waxed fat
and kicked, grown thick, had forsaken the God which made them, and lightly
esteemed the Rock. They had become unmindful and even forgotten God who formed
them and had lost faith in the Lord. Impossible, you say? After the tremendous
experiences of crossing the Red Sea dry-shod,
seeing Pharoah's chariots go down, the miraculous provisions of the wilderness
for forty years?

And yet, I remind you, we have a repetition of the same
thing in America.
In 1620, the old Mayflower loaded with Pilgrims sailed a chartless sea and
landed in this pioneer country. And on their knees they said, "By the
grace of God and for the advancement of the Christian faith, we plant the first
colony." The land's been cleared, railroads run, highways crossing the
nation, we have airways and airplanes, schools, churches, cities, and thriving
businesses with their skyscrapers.

But America
has esteemed lightly the Rock of her salvation and has become unmindful of the
Rock and forgotten the God who formed her. As we've said before, we're now
sitting by the bedside of a dying nation, with all of its liquor traffic, its
dope, immorality and homosexuality. Homes are broken, hopes are shattered, she
is in the final stages of decay, and God has had to write malignant and
terminal on her chart. Even as oses preached, "To me belongeth vengeance,
and recompense; their foot shall slide in due time: for the day of their
calamity is at hand, and the things that shall come upon them make haste."
Deuteronomy 32:35.

When Moses finished this farewell sermon, he gave an
invitation and said, "Set your hearts unto all the words which I testify
among you this day, which ye shall command your children to observe to do, all
the words of this law." Deuteronomy 32:46. Oh, at the warnings Moses gave
as recorded in Deuteronomy 4:40, "Thou shalt keep therefore his statutes,
and His commandments, which I command thee this day, that it may go well with
thee, and with thy children after thee, and that thou mayest prolong thy days
upon the earth, which the Lord thy God giveth thee, for ever."

"And these words which I command thee this day, shall
be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and
shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by
the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind
them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine
eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy
gates." Deuteronomy 6:6-9.

Chapter 12, verse 28, "Observe and hear all these words
which I command thee, that it may go well with thee, and with thy children
after thee for ever, when thou doest that which is good and right in the sight
of the Lord thy God." And now this old gray-haired general says, "For
it is not a vain thing for you; because it is your life." Oh my soul, in
this day when most Americans go to bed tired and wake up tired, go to sleep on
sedatives and wake up on stimulants, when most people just exist and never live
- listen to Jesus as He said, "I am come that they might have life, and
that they might have it more abundantly,"

John 10:10. "The words that I speak unto you, they are
spirit, and they are life," John 6:63. "Now ye are clean through the
Word which I have spoken unto you." John 15:3. And as the greatest man who
ever lived on earth brought his final message, as recorded in John 17:3 He
said, "This is life eternal, that they might know Thee the only true God,
and Jesus Christ whom thou has sent."

And verse 17, "Sanctify them through Thy truth: Thy
Word is truth." "But these are written that ye might believe that
Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have LIFE
through His Name." John 20:31. "Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the
Christ is born of God." Verse 4, "For whatsoever is born of God
overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even
our faith."

I John 5:1a,4. "He that hath the Son hath life; and he
that hath not the Son of God hath not life." I John 5:12. Even as Moses
lifted up the serpent in the wilderness and told the children of Israel that
had been bitten by the serpent to look and live, and as Isaiah said, "Look
unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is
none else;" Even so, there is still life in the look and that look is
aimed at Jesus. God told the Hebrews, in Hebrews 12:2, "Looking unto Jesus
the author and finisher of our faith." If you've never looked, you've
never lived. Jesus said, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy
laden, and I will give you rest." Matthew 11:28.

"It is not a vain
thing for you; because it is your
life." Deuteronomy 32:47.

Welcome

I hope you enjoy your short visit with us. My hope and prayer is that you know Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior. He died on Calvary's cross to pay the sin debt that you could never pay. Salvation is a free gift that God offers you (Ephesians 2:8,9). If you call upon the Lord Jesus (Romans 10:9), you can be absolutely certain that God has granted you the gift of eternal life (I John 5:13). I pray that someday, I will see you in heaven. May God bless you with His saving grace!